The city of Gainesville has scheduled a special meeting for Friday to again discuss passing a resolution sent to the City Commission by the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority.  

The special meeting will come one week after the Gainesville City Commission voted 4-1 to table the item until the first meeting in January.  

Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) staff want the resolution to help assure outside financial parties of the utility’s stability as it transitions from City Commission to authority control. The resolution shows that the current general manager/CEO has the same power over bonds as the general manager position had under the past utility structure run by the City Commission.  

The GRU Authority asked for the resolution to be sent to the city on Dec. 6 along with another agreement to give Alachua County assurances during the sale of the trunked radio system. City Attorney Daniel Nee placed the items on the agenda, and on Dec. 14, the City Commission approved the radio sale but not the resolution.  

GRU staff warned that the delay would tighten their window to secure the utility’s liquidity facilities by signing new contracts. The current contracts with Barclays that support $105 million in bonds expire in May. Without a new contract for liquidity facilities, backup on the debt, GRU would be forced to take other steps that could increase the risk of bond credit downgrades in the future. 

Commissioners at the meeting said they were surprised GRU staff hadn’t reached out to each commissioner to discuss and explain the item if it were so important and timely.  

Hours later on Dec. 14, the authority met again for a scheduled workshop. 

Authority Chair Craig Carter said he and GRU General Manager Tony Cunningham had purposefully not attended the meeting so that the commission wouldn’t feel steamrolled. He said between bond counsel and GRU’s chief of finance, all the answers to any City Commission questions were in the room for the meeting.  

Cunningham said the decision does introduce some risk and that operations will need to run smoothly in the new year.  

Carter said he would reach out to the mayor to see if a special meeting would give the utility more time instead of waiting until January. He said the commissioners might be able to email any requests for information to try to satisfy any questions.  

“We’ll come up with a solution,” Carter said.